Closing Data Gaps Across Different Domains In Financial Services
Targeted advertising and marketing in financial services generates a huge payoff. That payoff can be exponentially increased by six to seven times through personalized messages offered in real-time through contextualized data. These benefits are built on the foundations of real-time customer listening through data collection and identity resolution, making real-time customer data platforms (CDPs) a vital component to driving revenue growth and exceptional customer experiences in digital channels.
Not all CDPs are created equal. Financial institutions must think about exactly what problems they need a customer data platform to solve. The most common problems to be solved in financial services are related to gaps in digital data. These problems have existed for far too long and have become super critical as digital has become the primary engagement channel.
There are two forms of digital data gaps that financial services organizations suffer from:
- Gaps In Collection – The first type of data gap, gaps in collection, appears because brands don’t typically collect all the digital data they need. This happens because the tools they typically use only collect basic information such as whether a session has started and which pages are being viewed. For more detailed insights about clicks on hyperlinks or other content, entries into forms, product browsing or scrolling within a page, tags, and data layers need to be coded and this takes effort. Tagging and data layers also need careful consideration and upfront design effort. The problem with this approach to data collection is that brands don’t really understand the full extent of what data they need until after they start collecting it, at which point they must start plugging data gaps. The whole process has long lead times, so value is lost and innovation becomes difficult. The problem is made even worse by the continually changing nature of web and mobile applications which breaks existing tags and data layers, requiring a constant break-fix effort just to stand still.
- Gaps In Identity – The second and more pressing type is gaps in identity and has been caused by the deprecation of third-party cookies through emerging privacy regulations and browser restrictions. Apple’s ITP and other browser controls have rendered 3rd party trackers unable to create a persistent identity for customers as they navigate journeys across different domains over time. Most marketers understand that this affects paid advertising on third-party websites, and many are starting to realize this also affects advertising and personalization on owned channels. Many financial services brands operate multiple domains for many reasons, including multiple sub-brands, different product lines, public versus secure websites, mergers and acquisitions, or outsourcing development and hosting of web applications. Where different domains exist, third-party trackers will create multiple identities for an individual across the customer journey. This not only creates an inflated view of the number of visitors but renders financial services organizations unable to stitch together their customer’s journeys and respond with targeted adverts and messages that are timely and relevant.
Examples of Cross-Domain Identify Gap
Examples of the cross-domain identity gap are everywhere, for example, a customer may research products and services on a public website before logging in. If the public and secure sites are different domains, pre-login history is dropped and login, and the brand will not be able to respond to the interests that the customer has shown only moments earlier.
72 percent of customers only engage with personalized messaging, so knowing – or not knowing – what that customer browsed prior to log-on becomes a huge, missed opportunity.
Smarter HQ
The problem is amplified when a financial institution operates multiple domains for different products and brands, creating more breaks in the customer journey. The problem will get even worse when Google removes third-party cookies support in Chrome in 2024.
Currently, only 28 percent of companies have a plan to address the identity gap, so it’s clear that most organizations have work to do, and they need to move quickly to avoid losing revenue.
2022 Financial Services Trendwatch Report
Customers expect a great experience and without it, brands lose loyalty. Top financial executives overestimate how positive their customer experience is.
Nearly 75 percent of senior bank executives believe their bank outperforms others in customer engagement, while only one-third of customers say their experience is positive.
Wall Street Journal
Financial tech teams have been working to create their own solutions but have found there’s a high price in terms of time, effort, and lost revenue. Workarounds take time to build and significant effort to maintain because they are fragile. Companies that have created home-grown solutions to stitch together information are still missing the key ingredient – real-time data capture and contextualization so that they can respond to and seize every opportunity.
Having a workable solution to be able to follow a customer through every action on all your company’s domains, in real-time, will add growth within your customer base, and the opportunity to find new customers beyond that.